The Amherst Central Alumni Foundation, Inc., is hosting our second Meat Raffle on Saturday, May 2nd, 2026, at the Marygold Manor, 770 Maryvale Drive, Cheektowaga, NY 14225
The doors open at 6:00 PM, and the first spin is at 7:00 PM.
One of the grants funded by the Amherst Central Alumni Foundation in the fall of 2025 helped establish a clothing closet at Windermere Elementary School to support students in need. This project was made possible through the generosity of Amherst alumni who contribute to our grant program.
From the Windy’s Clothing Closet team:
Here is a peek into our new clothing closet, which moved from Windermere Boulevard Elementary school to a church down the street! Thank you for the totes, shelving, and other materials that are arriving! We could not have done it without the support of Amherst Alumni members and leadership!
It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our beloved President, CEO and pillar of our community, Dr. Creighton.
Dr. Creighton dedicated his life to serving our community with compassion, generosity, and unwavering commitment.
He was a visionary — creative, forward-thinking, and always looking at what could be. He saw possibilities long before anyone else did and believed in them wholeheartedly. His passion for building, improving, and strengthening everything around him pushed us all to be better and shaped the very foundation of our organization.
As most have experienced, his generosity was unparalleled; his first instinct was always to show up for others, often quietly and without any desire for recognition or expecting anything in return. Serving others wasn’t something he chose to do — it was simply who he was.
Families knew him as someone who truly cared, who listened, and who showed up at any time. His legacy lives on in the many children whose lives were made brighter because of his dedication.
We are profoundly grateful for the difference he made in our community. We will honor his life by continuing the work he cared so deeply about, knowing his impact will be felt through generations of children and their families.
Gary F. Filsinger was born in Buffalo, New York, on March 29, 1936. He graduated from Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There, he studied Chinese language and English literature, and was part of the English honors program. He later attended the University of Buffalo in their teaching program but left to pursue a career in acting in New York City.
Mr. Filsinger was involved in many off-off Broadway productions as both an actor and director. At the former Cafe Cino, he was involved in the original production of “Dames at Sea” with Bernadette Peters. He was also involved in children’s theater with Kay Rockefeller. Filsinger worked as an actor and served as an artistic director at the Theater at Monmouth in Maine in the late 1960s, and as artistic director of the Undercroft Players (an Actors Equity showcase theater) for 12 years in the early 2000s at Trinity Lutheran Church in New York. He later sang in opera productions at Trinity with composer and director David Clenny.
Mr. Filsinger was also employed in the communications departments at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Reformed Church in America, and the Episcopal Church. He was a member of Actors Equity and Trinity Lutheran Church.
His great uncle William Zacharias was a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic in the 1950s, and his grandfather Martin B. Heisler ran for Congress for the Erie County area in 1930.
Mr. Filsinger is survived by his loving cousins Carol Heisler Lett and family of Williamsville, New York, and Grand Island, and other Heisler cousins in Buffalo and Rochester, and Texas, by Sandra Filsinger Hassinger and family of Florida and Buffalo, and by the family of his deceased cousin Dr. Gordon Kauderer of Williamsville; by his longtime partner and former spouse, David Clenny, of New York City; and by his sister, Cheryl Filsinger Held, and brother-in-law George Held, of Bronxville, New York, and Sag Harbor, New York. His parents, Frederick Harold Filsinger and Erna Heisler Filsinger, predeceased him. Mr. Filsinger’s earliest ancestors in America were Mennonites in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s.
Tiger Tracks 